摘要中国起源于黄河流域，是一个农业大国。由于中国的封建专制已经存在了几千年，佛教占据重要的地位，因此中国人比较注重想象思维，他们善于对事物颜色的特征进行形象化而联想出事物的意义。而英国则四面环海，以商业和航海业为主，以及被伊斯兰教所影响，因此英国人比较注重抽象思维，善于抽象化科学的分析事物的具体颜色。本文主要对红色,白色,黄色和黑色四种颜色在中英两国不同的象征意义进行比较，以便分析颜色词对中英两国人们的生活在审美标准，颜色禁忌方面的不同影响。从而能更加深入地了解中英两国的文化，有利于增加对颜色词的理解，避免跨文化交流时的冲突。关键词：颜色；比较；禁忌；生活TheDifferentImpactofColorWordsonPeople’sLifeBetweenChineseandEnglish1.IntroductionInhumanlanguage,color,asanimportantfieldofhumanperceptionoftheworld,hasthehugefunctionoftransmittinginformation,andalsohasanimportantinfluenceonpeople’slife.Colorconstitutesbeautifulwordsandcanbefoundeverywhere.Humanenjoythebeautyofnatureinthisworldandcreatealotofcolorwords.Thecolorwordsassociatewithdifferentmeanings.SothesamecolormayhavedifferentsymbolmeaningsbetweenChineseandEnglish.Withthecontinuousdevelopmentofsociety,thevocabularyofcolorisconstantlyenriched,themeaningsofcolorwordshavederivedalotofnewmeaningsfromtheoriginalexpressionofasimplecolor.Inancienttimes,thesamecolorhaddifferentmeaningsbetweenChineseandEnglish.Whileatpresent,somesymbolmeaningsofsamecolorwordsmayhavesameusages.Therefore,thelanguageofmankindbecomesmorevivid,richandcolorful,itisnecessarytolearnthesymbolicmeaningsofcolorwordsbetweenChineseandEnglish.Duetothedifferenceinsocialhumanities,thinkingmodesandreligiousfactors,thesamecolorwordhasdifferentmeaningsbetweenChineseandEnglish.InChina,thefeudalsystemhasexistedforalongtimeandChinaisanagriculturalcountry.SoChinesemindisrelativelyconservative,Chinesepaymoreattentiontotheimaginalthinkingandhaveunscientificattitudetowardsthecolorwords.InancientChina,thewholesocietywasrelativelyconservative,sotherewasasignificancedifferenceofunderstandingcolorwordsingenderandage.Forinstance,theChinesegirlpaidmoreattentiontothebrightcolor,sotheylikedbrightcoloranddressedwithbrightcolor.However,theChineseboyemphasizedonthedarkcolor.BesidesChinesepaidmoreattentiontodifferentcolorofclothesindifferentages.InancientChina,Theoldmanoftenworedarkclothes,whichshowedtheirfellingofmelancholy.Whileyoungpeopleoftenworelightcolorclothes,whichshowedthefeelingofsunlightandenergy.However,InBritain,becauseofthegreatgeographicaldiscoveredandtwoindustrialrevolutions,theBritishpeoplepaidmoreattentiontoabstractthinking,theyanalyzedcolorwordswithscientificattitude.Inaddition,Britainwasrelativelyopen,therewerenotmuchdifferenceofcolorwordsingendersandages.Becauseofthedifference,rationalattitudeshouldbekeptandthesymbolmeaningsofcolorwordsshouldbeunderstood.Besides,thesymbolmeaningsofcolorwordsmustbeassociatedwiththedifferentcountries’culture,customandsoon.UnderstandingthevariousculturalfactorsinBritaincanhelppeopletoachievethepurposeofculturalexchangeandintegrationbetweenChineseandtheWest.(Wang62)2.TheEmbodimentofDifferentColorWordsBetweenChineseandEnglishIndifferentcountriesanddifferentoccasions,thesamecolorwordhasdifferentsymbolicmeanings.Therefore,themeaningsofthesamecolorwordareneededtobeanalyzedspecificallybetweenChineseandEnglish.Sometimes,thesamecolorwordhasthesamesymbolmeaningbutthedifferentmeaningsofthesamecolorwordalsoexistindailylife.Therefore,compar...
